Research Question: What are current school safety standards? Contributed by: Sarah Mentzer
Stronger Security Measures Will Make Schools Less Safe.
James Alan Scot and Jack Levin argue that that too much focus on improving school security will inspire school violence rather than prevent it. In their opinion they claim that when schools react to school shootings by increasing security they are just reminding students that school shootings are just one avenue for expressing their anger and alienation. After the 1999 Columbine massacre school safety became the number one threat to students. Administrators upgraded security and sought to identify potentially dangerous students by scanning for warning signs such as black clothing or bullying. These efforts have had the unintended effects of intensifying fear in vuneralb estudents while encouraging angry students to take up guns against their classmates. Some alientated youngsters identified with the power of the perpertrators. They see school shooters not as villans but as heroes, not only did they get the bullies and insensitive teachers but they were famous for it. The authors believe that the issue of school violence should not be ignored, but should not be publicized in the way it is. They believe that this approach will focus on the cause of the violence without reinforcing the action. They also blamed the issue on over population of schools, which makes it impossible for teachers and guidance counselors to really get to know the students because there are just too many of them.
After reading this article I thought that I would not only have the opposite opinion on the issue, but I also thought I would be offended by what he was saying. Surprisingly after reading the article I agree with Scot and Levin. I think one of the main causes of the increase of violence currently compared to 50 years ago is the constant display in the media. I agree that we don't need to ignore school violence but I think it might be helpful to have less media attention on the issue. The truth is while the majority of the human population and outraged and saddened by a school shooting, those few isolated individuals do see it as an answer. The shooters themselves are viewed as heroes in their sick eyes because they got revenge. They also addressed the issue of overcrowding. In all of the school violence articles are reports that is one thing that they all have in common that overcrowded schools have a higher violence record. We really need to focus on the causes of these violent actions, and continue to educated and prevent school violence.
Fox, James A., and Jack Levin. "Stronger Security Measures Will Make Schools Less Safe." Opposing Viewpoints (2005). Opposing Viewpoints Research Center. URI Library, Kingston. 25 Nov. 2007.
Zero Tolerance Policies Are Unfair.
This article talked about how Zero Tolerance Policies go too far. They are inflexible that punish students for minor infractions without regard for individual circumstances. John Derbyshire talks about how schools should adopt an approach based on the idea that humans are basically good and can be trusted to regulate themselves on an internal code of behavior. He believes that zero tolerance policies should be eliminated from the school system. He made a meeting with his children's principal and asked him if his son were to say in a playground dispute "I'll get my Dad's gun and shoot you.", would he be facing the arrest of his son and the seizure of his property? The principal responded "No, because I know your kids I know you. That kind of stuff only happens in big schools where the student turnover is high. If necessary I would just call you in for a chat to discuss the problem". Overall he just disagreed with the Zero Tolerance policy and thought the majority of the issues were misunderstood and did not deserve the severe punishment they recieved.
I have to agree with Derbyshire that there are occasions where suspension seems too harsh for the crime. It always seems the cases you hear about involve six year olds bringing in "weapons" that they would never consider weapons, or "drugs" that would not normally be considered drugs. I agree in those circumstances the zero tolerance policy seems harsh, but I think the idea of the policy is still solid. We need to have strict rules so that students understand that school violence is not a joke. Threating to take a gun to school is not funny in any way, and honestly no child should use that as an excuse regardless of being bullied. I think Derbyshire is just concerned about his own neck, and his own property. If I was the principle and a young boy said he was going to bring in his father's gun, regardless of the fact that I might know the parents I would still find that to be a serious threat and I would want to enforce a zero tolerance policy on that threat. I think the author is defensive because he does not want to have to worry about having his personal gun confiscated because he has the right to own one, but I think he may be worried that because he owns guns his son might one day think that way. Overall I still believe in the Zero Tolerance policy regardless of the fact that it may have some flaws, I think our main concern needs to stay that we wan to prevent another school shooting from happening no matter how strict we have to be.
Derbyshire, John. "Zero Tolerance Policies Are Unfair" Opposing Viewpoints (2004). Opposing Viewpoints Research Center. URI Library, Kingston. 25 Nov. 2007.
Violence in U.S. Public Schools. A Summary of Findings.
This article analyzed data from the 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). The survey asked principals of 3,314 schools about incidents of crime and violence, disciplinary problems, policies related to safety, and violence preventions programs in their schools. The schools represents elementary, middle, secondary, and combined public schools in all 50 states. The report focused on two categories, crimes that constitute violence and a subset of these that constitute serious violence: rape, sexual battery, physical attack with or without a weapon, threat of an attack with or without a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon. The survey also looked at the population of the schools percent of: minority students, student eligible for free or reduced lunch, students scoring below the 15th percentile on standardized tests, and males. Secondary schools (92%) are more likely to report an incidence of violence compared to middle (87%) or elementary schools (61%). After controlling other characteristics the only school management practice that remains associated with reports of violence is the number of classroom changes students make during a typical school day; as the number increases, the probability of experiencing a violent incident also increases. Five characteristics continue to show a postive relationship to serious violence: school enrollment size, percentage of males in the student population, the number of schoolwide disruptions and the number of serious discipline problems, and rural schools are less likely than city schools to report an incidence of serious violence, while no differences are found between schools in cities, the urban fringe, or towns. The report showed that small number of school reported a large number of violent incidences. 18% of schools accounted for 75% of the reported incidences of violence. Whe schools with no violence were compared to schools with high violence the following characteristics were found to be significant: school level, enrollment size, urbanicity, crime where students live, number of classroom changes, student to teacher ratio, number of serious discipline problems, and number of school wide disruptions.
In conclusion during the 1999-2000 school year 71% of public schools reported having at least one violent incident, with 1,466,395 total incidents reported. The survey found the academic engagement and school discipline are are significantly related to school violence.
This article was interesting because it compared statistics from all the schools around the country. It included high school, middle school, and elementary school. It also included urban and rural schools across the nation. One of the facts that I found interesting was that the more classroom changes a school has the higher probability a school has of experiencing a violent incident. I thought this was interesting because when I was in high school we changed classrooms every hour or so, but after I graduated they changed their policy to block scheduling, which would limit the number of classroom changes you make in a day because they only do two or three subjects a day. I would be interested to see if this was a major influence on why my school decided to switch to the block scheduling.
Larsen, Eric. Violence in Public Schools. A Summary of Findings. ERIC Development Team. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse, 2003. 1-6.
Zero Tolerance Policies
This article focused on current Zero Tolerance Policies from 2001 and how to create your own policy to fit your school. Almost all schools report having zero-tolerance policies for firearms (94%) and weapons other than firearms (91%), according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Eighty-seven percent of schools have zero-tolerance policies for alcohol, and 88% have policies for drugs. Most schools also have zero-tolerance policies for violence and tobacco (79% each). This article describes the origins of zero-tolerance policies, presents evidence on their effectiveness, examines criticisms of them, and recommends strategies to make the policies more useful. Zero-tolerance policies are administrative rules intended to address specific problems associated with school safety and discipline. In 1994 Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act, which required states to legislate zero-tolerance laws or risk losing federal funds various states, counties, and districts have developed their own policies in tune with local needs.
Critics of the policy claim there has been no concerted effort to test the efficacy of interventions that target school behavior, and few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of zero-tolerance strategies. The National Center for Education Statistics found that, after four years of implementation, zero-tolerance policies had little effect at previously unsafe schools; the center also reports that the current data do not demonstrate a dramatic decrease in school-based violence in recent years.
Some schools report positive results from their policies. In Tacoma, Washington, Henry Foss Senior High School's School-Centered Decision Making (SCDM) team implemented in fall 1991 a zero-tolerance policy against fighting. After one year, the policy resulted in a 95 percent drop in violent behavior on campus. Moreover, the policy's positive impact led to record-breaking freshmen enrollment; the majority of new entrants indicated that they were attending the school primarily because of its safety
Zero-tolerance policies have undoubtedly created legal headaches for some school administrators. By greatly increasing the number of students considered for expulsion, and by removing the flexibility previously accorded to administrators. Sometimes even exemplary students are caught in the zero-tolerance net. For instance, during the 1998 school year, a teacher observed 12-year old, A student, filing his nails with a miniature Swiss Army knife; for violating the school's anti-weapons policy, the youth received a one-year expulsion. This is an example of the no flexibility being too extreme in some cases, but if there is any flexibility in the rules then the Zero-Tolerance policy falls apart.
Elements for creating an effective policy include: specify clear consequences for misbehavior, allow flexibility and consider expulsion alternatives, clearly define what constitutes a weapon, a drug, or an act of misbehavior, learn from the experiences educators have had with zero tolerance in other states, school and districts, integrate comprehensive health-education programs that include drugs and alcohol, and review your policy each year. This elements will help to create and more efficient and effective policy for discipling students in our school system.
I think this article was helpful in giving me a better understanding on how the zero tolerance policy works and how much of our nation is using this policy. Before reading this article I knew of the zero tolerance policy briefly, because my own high school had a zero tolerance policy and I remember it being enforced while I was there. My senior year in high school a friend's boyfriend had threatened to bring a gun to school because someone was flirting with his girlfriend. He had gone as far as bringing the gun to his car in the school parking lot, someone who heard his threat went to the principal and the student was arrested and expelled. I remember being terrified when I realized wether it was all talk or not, how close we could have potentially came to a school shooting. I was relieved that the school took such immediate and stict action, and then followed through with a severe punishment. Although some students may be affected negatively by the inflexibility of this policy for the overall idea I believe it helps to improve school safety.
McAndrews, Tobins. Zero Tolerance Policies. ERIC Development Team. Eugene: ERIC Clearinghouse, 2001. 1-7.
Preventing Violence by Elementary School Children.
This article presents an overview of effective anitviolence strategies for use with elementary school children that educators can integrate into their schools and classrooms. The most effective antiviolence efforts focus on preventing children's bad conduct: such as "aggression" such as tantrums, "bullying" targeting someone else as weaker, and "hate bullying" which is victimizing someone of a different race, gender, or religion. Young children suffer from a lack of closeness with adults but are overexposed to violent graphics and images in the news and media. All of these forces affect the temperment of children, and each child develops a unique response to these situations. The most important factor in promoting children's social development may be bonding with positive, nuturing adults: teachers who offer acceptance and support and convey the importance of having positive values.
The most effective antiviolence programs employ several strategies including: teaching social competence, understanding and recognizing the emotions of oneself and others, accurately percieving a situation to determine appropriate response, predicting the consequences of personal acts, staying calm in order to think before acting, to reduce stress and sadness, to replace aggresion with positive behavior, to control anger, and selecting positive mentor and role models. You also want to create a positive and calm environment for the students, as well as establish standards rules and reguations for responding to violence. The PeaceBuilders Program ahas five guidelines: praise others, avoid put downs, seek wise people as advisors and friends, notice and correct hurt one causes, and right wrongs. Schoolwide schools are implementing the "norm of nonviolence" strategy. They create a calm and predictable atmosphere that helps create a feeling of security and limits the possibility of triggering explosive behavior. Schools with an adequate facility and proper population for their size tend to be nonviolent. In the classroom teachers need to be aware that trying to "control" a classroom can actually cause aggression. Instead teachers should work with students to develop a list of rules for acceptable behavior. It is more effective for teachers to deal with misbehaving children quietly and in private, with as little attention as possible. Teachers can organize cooperative play activities instead of winner-loser games. They should urge students to help rather than taunt those with less athletic ability. The most successful strategies to help students develop social competence include those that help to nurture students at home, at school, and in the community.
After reading this article the main point that I took home was that we need to start children young on anti-violence education. They need to be taught how to deal with their emotions, and learn about diversity and bullying. This article gave great idea on how teachers can integrate these anti-violence ideas into your students education, but it gave me the impression that they can only do so much. I think its great that teachers are going to teach this information in school, but I feel if they are not getting the same positive reinforcement at home then they can only do so much to help the issue.
Schwartz, Wendy. Preventing Violence by Elementary School Children. ERIC Development Team. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse, 1999. 1-7.
An Overview of Strategies to Reduce School Violence.
- Youth violence was once thought of as a urban public school problem and a consequence of poverty and family dysfunction, but stable suburban and rural communities, as well as private schools are also experiencing it. The most prevalent type of youth crime is theft, and tge most common types of violence are fist fights, bullying, and shoving matches.
The government is trying to enforce the reduction of availability of guns, especially the sale of weapons to minors. The practice of trying juveniles as adults is growing, and some states even hold parents responsible for deliquent acts of juveniles. In 1994 President Bill Clinton signed the "Gun Free School Act" mandating a one-year expulsion for students who bring weapons to school, this policy increased the "zero tolerance" policy in many schools relating to weapons. The Federal government makes funds available to prevention activities through anti-crime and violence programs.
Helpng young people find employment is a way the community can help reduce property crime and help build adolescent's self esteem and sense of responsibility. Having a job also help the youth understand how staying in school will benefit them in their future career plans. Community campaigns can also help to control the gang population. There are now active gangs in all 50 states, which recruit and are active nationwide.
Student misbehavior can be related to ineffective schooling, feelings of frustration and failure, so many schools are restructuring to increase student engagement, attendance and performance. Schools can also reduce violence by promoting mutal respect among all members of their community, student self-respect, and appreiation for diversity. Schools can demonstrate respect for students through availbility of good facitlites and resources including up to date text books, laboratories, and computer equipment. The appearance of a school can give the preception of safety, and a well-cared for school decreased the chances of vandalism and violence. Unfortunately schoosl and urban areas are among the most overcrowded, poorly equipped and maintained.
Creating a code of conduct demonstrates a commitment to violence prevention and and helps staff and students feel safe. Policies can be created at three levels district, school, and classroom.
The most common school security measure in monitoring students in areas where they congregate such as hallways, bathrooms, and the cafeteria. Some schools hire police to visit periodically or even to patrol the halls regularly. Some educators believe that police prescence has a negative effect on teaching a learning and that the need for them implies adminstative failure. There is a strong relationship between violence and drug use and sale, so adminstration makes special effort to keep schools "Drug Free" through educational programs and searching.
As far as prevention programs the key is to start young. Elementary educatin training in anger management, impulse control, appreciation of diversity, and conflict resolution skills can help prevent youth from engaging in violence in the future. Anti-gang programs are also essential to school safety. It requires that a school not only acknowledge a gang prescence but that they continue to investigate who is a member and what they are doing.
In conclusion the most effective programs make an accurate assesment of the existence of violence, they use all of their resources in the community, they incorportate family services into community and school programs, they intervene early in a child's life, they include not only antiviolence strategies but also positive experiences, and they create defined behavior codes which are enforced strictly and uniformly.
Schwartz, Wendy. An Overview of Strategies to Reduce School Violence. ERIC Development Team. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse, 1996. 1-10. EDC 102 Fnl Prj Part I Eval - Sarah
Contributed by: Sarah Mentzer
Stronger Security Measures Will Make Schools Less Safe.
James Alan Scot and Jack Levin argue that that too much focus on improving school security will inspire school violence rather than prevent it. In their opinion they claim that when schools react to school shootings by increasing security they are just reminding students that school shootings are just one avenue for expressing their anger and alienation. After the 1999 Columbine massacre school safety became the number one threat to students. Administrators upgraded security and sought to identify potentially dangerous students by scanning for warning signs such as black clothing or bullying. These efforts have had the unintended effects of intensifying fear in vuneralb estudents while encouraging angry students to take up guns against their classmates. Some alientated youngsters identified with the power of the perpertrators. They see school shooters not as villans but as heroes, not only did they get the bullies and insensitive teachers but they were famous for it. The authors believe that the issue of school violence should not be ignored, but should not be publicized in the way it is. They believe that this approach will focus on the cause of the violence without reinforcing the action. They also blamed the issue on over population of schools, which makes it impossible for teachers and guidance counselors to really get to know the students because there are just too many of them.
After reading this article I thought that I would not only have the opposite opinion on the issue, but I also thought I would be offended by what he was saying. Surprisingly after reading the article I agree with Scot and Levin. I think one of the main causes of the increase of violence currently compared to 50 years ago is the constant display in the media. I agree that we don't need to ignore school violence but I think it might be helpful to have less media attention on the issue. The truth is while the majority of the human population and outraged and saddened by a school shooting, those few isolated individuals do see it as an answer. The shooters themselves are viewed as heroes in their sick eyes because they got revenge. They also addressed the issue of overcrowding. In all of the school violence articles are reports that is one thing that they all have in common that overcrowded schools have a higher violence record. We really need to focus on the causes of these violent actions, and continue to educated and prevent school violence.
Fox, James A., and Jack Levin. "Stronger Security Measures Will Make Schools Less Safe." Opposing Viewpoints (2005). Opposing Viewpoints Research Center. URI Library, Kingston. 25 Nov. 2007.
Zero Tolerance Policies Are Unfair.
This article talked about how Zero Tolerance Policies go too far. They are inflexible that punish students for minor infractions without regard for individual circumstances. John Derbyshire talks about how schools should adopt an approach based on the idea that humans are basically good and can be trusted to regulate themselves on an internal code of behavior. He believes that zero tolerance policies should be eliminated from the school system. He made a meeting with his children's principal and asked him if his son were to say in a playground dispute "I'll get my Dad's gun and shoot you.", would he be facing the arrest of his son and the seizure of his property? The principal responded "No, because I know your kids I know you. That kind of stuff only happens in big schools where the student turnover is high. If necessary I would just call you in for a chat to discuss the problem". Overall he just disagreed with the Zero Tolerance policy and thought the majority of the issues were misunderstood and did not deserve the severe punishment they recieved.
I have to agree with Derbyshire that there are occasions where suspension seems too harsh for the crime. It always seems the cases you hear about involve six year olds bringing in "weapons" that they would never consider weapons, or "drugs" that would not normally be considered drugs. I agree in those circumstances the zero tolerance policy seems harsh, but I think the idea of the policy is still solid. We need to have strict rules so that students understand that school violence is not a joke. Threating to take a gun to school is not funny in any way, and honestly no child should use that as an excuse regardless of being bullied. I think Derbyshire is just concerned about his own neck, and his own property. If I was the principle and a young boy said he was going to bring in his father's gun, regardless of the fact that I might know the parents I would still find that to be a serious threat and I would want to enforce a zero tolerance policy on that threat. I think the author is defensive because he does not want to have to worry about having his personal gun confiscated because he has the right to own one, but I think he may be worried that because he owns guns his son might one day think that way. Overall I still believe in the Zero Tolerance policy regardless of the fact that it may have some flaws, I think our main concern needs to stay that we wan to prevent another school shooting from happening no matter how strict we have to be.
Derbyshire, John. "Zero Tolerance Policies Are Unfair" Opposing Viewpoints (2004). Opposing Viewpoints Research Center. URI Library, Kingston. 25 Nov. 2007.
Violence in U.S. Public Schools. A Summary of Findings.
This article analyzed data from the 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). The survey asked principals of 3,314 schools about incidents of crime and violence, disciplinary problems, policies related to safety, and violence preventions programs in their schools. The schools represents elementary, middle, secondary, and combined public schools in all 50 states. The report focused on two categories, crimes that constitute violence and a subset of these that constitute serious violence: rape, sexual battery, physical attack with or without a weapon, threat of an attack with or without a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon. The survey also looked at the population of the schools percent of: minority students, student eligible for free or reduced lunch, students scoring below the 15th percentile on standardized tests, and males. Secondary schools (92%) are more likely to report an incidence of violence compared to middle (87%) or elementary schools (61%). After controlling other characteristics the only school management practice that remains associated with reports of violence is the number of classroom changes students make during a typical school day; as the number increases, the probability of experiencing a violent incident also increases. Five characteristics continue to show a postive relationship to serious violence: school enrollment size, percentage of males in the student population, the number of schoolwide disruptions and the number of serious discipline problems, and rural schools are less likely than city schools to report an incidence of serious violence, while no differences are found between schools in cities, the urban fringe, or towns. The report showed that small number of school reported a large number of violent incidences. 18% of schools accounted for 75% of the reported incidences of violence. Whe schools with no violence were compared to schools with high violence the following characteristics were found to be significant: school level, enrollment size, urbanicity, crime where students live, number of classroom changes, student to teacher ratio, number of serious discipline problems, and number of school wide disruptions.
In conclusion during the 1999-2000 school year 71% of public schools reported having at least one violent incident, with 1,466,395 total incidents reported. The survey found the academic engagement and school discipline are are significantly related to school violence.
This article was interesting because it compared statistics from all the schools around the country. It included high school, middle school, and elementary school. It also included urban and rural schools across the nation. One of the facts that I found interesting was that the more classroom changes a school has the higher probability a school has of experiencing a violent incident. I thought this was interesting because when I was in high school we changed classrooms every hour or so, but after I graduated they changed their policy to block scheduling, which would limit the number of classroom changes you make in a day because they only do two or three subjects a day. I would be interested to see if this was a major influence on why my school decided to switch to the block scheduling.
Larsen, Eric. Violence in Public Schools. A Summary of Findings. ERIC Development Team. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse, 2003. 1-6.
Zero Tolerance Policies
This article focused on current Zero Tolerance Policies from 2001 and how to create your own policy to fit your school. Almost all schools report having zero-tolerance policies for firearms (94%) and weapons other than firearms (91%), according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Eighty-seven percent of schools have zero-tolerance policies for alcohol, and 88% have policies for drugs. Most schools also have zero-tolerance policies for violence and tobacco (79% each). This article describes the origins of zero-tolerance policies, presents evidence on their effectiveness, examines criticisms of them, and recommends strategies to make the policies more useful. Zero-tolerance policies are administrative rules intended to address specific problems associated with school safety and discipline. In 1994 Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act, which required states to legislate zero-tolerance laws or risk losing federal funds various states, counties, and districts have developed their own policies in tune with local needs.
Critics of the policy claim there has been no concerted effort to test the efficacy of interventions that target school behavior, and few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of zero-tolerance strategies. The National Center for Education Statistics found that, after four years of implementation, zero-tolerance policies had little effect at previously unsafe schools; the center also reports that the current data do not demonstrate a dramatic decrease in school-based violence in recent years.
Some schools report positive results from their policies. In Tacoma, Washington, Henry Foss Senior High School's School-Centered Decision Making (SCDM) team implemented in fall 1991 a zero-tolerance policy against fighting. After one year, the policy resulted in a 95 percent drop in violent behavior on campus. Moreover, the policy's positive impact led to record-breaking freshmen enrollment; the majority of new entrants indicated that they were attending the school primarily because of its safety
Zero-tolerance policies have undoubtedly created legal headaches for some school administrators. By greatly increasing the number of students considered for expulsion, and by removing the flexibility previously accorded to administrators. Sometimes even exemplary students are caught in the zero-tolerance net. For instance, during the 1998 school year, a teacher observed 12-year old, A student, filing his nails with a miniature Swiss Army knife; for violating the school's anti-weapons policy, the youth received a one-year expulsion. This is an example of the no flexibility being too extreme in some cases, but if there is any flexibility in the rules then the Zero-Tolerance policy falls apart.
Elements for creating an effective policy include: specify clear consequences for misbehavior, allow flexibility and consider expulsion alternatives, clearly define what constitutes a weapon, a drug, or an act of misbehavior, learn from the experiences educators have had with zero tolerance in other states, school and districts, integrate comprehensive health-education programs that include drugs and alcohol, and review your policy each year. This elements will help to create and more efficient and effective policy for discipling students in our school system.
I think this article was helpful in giving me a better understanding on how the zero tolerance policy works and how much of our nation is using this policy. Before reading this article I knew of the zero tolerance policy briefly, because my own high school had a zero tolerance policy and I remember it being enforced while I was there. My senior year in high school a friend's boyfriend had threatened to bring a gun to school because someone was flirting with his girlfriend. He had gone as far as bringing the gun to his car in the school parking lot, someone who heard his threat went to the principal and the student was arrested and expelled. I remember being terrified when I realized wether it was all talk or not, how close we could have potentially came to a school shooting. I was relieved that the school took such immediate and stict action, and then followed through with a severe punishment. Although some students may be affected negatively by the inflexibility of this policy for the overall idea I believe it helps to improve school safety.
McAndrews, Tobins. Zero Tolerance Policies. ERIC Development Team. Eugene: ERIC Clearinghouse, 2001. 1-7.
Preventing Violence by Elementary School Children.
This article presents an overview of effective anitviolence strategies for use with elementary school children that educators can integrate into their schools and classrooms. The most effective antiviolence efforts focus on preventing children's bad conduct: such as "aggression" such as tantrums, "bullying" targeting someone else as weaker, and "hate bullying" which is victimizing someone of a different race, gender, or religion. Young children suffer from a lack of closeness with adults but are overexposed to violent graphics and images in the news and media. All of these forces affect the temperment of children, and each child develops a unique response to these situations. The most important factor in promoting children's social development may be bonding with positive, nuturing adults: teachers who offer acceptance and support and convey the importance of having positive values.
The most effective antiviolence programs employ several strategies including: teaching social competence, understanding and recognizing the emotions of oneself and others, accurately percieving a situation to determine appropriate response, predicting the consequences of personal acts, staying calm in order to think before acting, to reduce stress and sadness, to replace aggresion with positive behavior, to control anger, and selecting positive mentor and role models. You also want to create a positive and calm environment for the students, as well as establish standards rules and reguations for responding to violence. The PeaceBuilders Program ahas five guidelines: praise others, avoid put downs, seek wise people as advisors and friends, notice and correct hurt one causes, and right wrongs. Schoolwide schools are implementing the "norm of nonviolence" strategy. They create a calm and predictable atmosphere that helps create a feeling of security and limits the possibility of triggering explosive behavior. Schools with an adequate facility and proper population for their size tend to be nonviolent. In the classroom teachers need to be aware that trying to "control" a classroom can actually cause aggression. Instead teachers should work with students to develop a list of rules for acceptable behavior. It is more effective for teachers to deal with misbehaving children quietly and in private, with as little attention as possible. Teachers can organize cooperative play activities instead of winner-loser games. They should urge students to help rather than taunt those with less athletic ability. The most successful strategies to help students develop social competence include those that help to nurture students at home, at school, and in the community.
After reading this article the main point that I took home was that we need to start children young on anti-violence education. They need to be taught how to deal with their emotions, and learn about diversity and bullying. This article gave great idea on how teachers can integrate these anti-violence ideas into your students education, but it gave me the impression that they can only do so much. I think its great that teachers are going to teach this information in school, but I feel if they are not getting the same positive reinforcement at home then they can only do so much to help the issue.
Schwartz, Wendy. Preventing Violence by Elementary School Children. ERIC Development Team. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse, 1999. 1-7.
An Overview of Strategies to Reduce School Violence.
- Youth violence was once thought of as a urban public school problem and a consequence of poverty and family dysfunction, but stable suburban and rural communities, as well as private schools are also experiencing it. The most prevalent type of youth crime is theft, and tge most common types of violence are fist fights, bullying, and shoving matches.
The government is trying to enforce the reduction of availability of guns, especially the sale of weapons to minors. The practice of trying juveniles as adults is growing, and some states even hold parents responsible for deliquent acts of juveniles. In 1994 President Bill Clinton signed the "Gun Free School Act" mandating a one-year expulsion for students who bring weapons to school, this policy increased the "zero tolerance" policy in many schools relating to weapons. The Federal government makes funds available to prevention activities through anti-crime and violence programs.
Helpng young people find employment is a way the community can help reduce property crime and help build adolescent's self esteem and sense of responsibility. Having a job also help the youth understand how staying in school will benefit them in their future career plans. Community campaigns can also help to control the gang population. There are now active gangs in all 50 states, which recruit and are active nationwide.
Student misbehavior can be related to ineffective schooling, feelings of frustration and failure, so many schools are restructuring to increase student engagement, attendance and performance. Schools can also reduce violence by promoting mutal respect among all members of their community, student self-respect, and appreiation for diversity. Schools can demonstrate respect for students through availbility of good facitlites and resources including up to date text books, laboratories, and computer equipment. The appearance of a school can give the preception of safety, and a well-cared for school decreased the chances of vandalism and violence. Unfortunately schoosl and urban areas are among the most overcrowded, poorly equipped and maintained.
Creating a code of conduct demonstrates a commitment to violence prevention and and helps staff and students feel safe. Policies can be created at three levels district, school, and classroom.
The most common school security measure in monitoring students in areas where they congregate such as hallways, bathrooms, and the cafeteria. Some schools hire police to visit periodically or even to patrol the halls regularly. Some educators believe that police prescence has a negative effect on teaching a learning and that the need for them implies adminstative failure. There is a strong relationship between violence and drug use and sale, so adminstration makes special effort to keep schools "Drug Free" through educational programs and searching.
As far as prevention programs the key is to start young. Elementary educatin training in anger management, impulse control, appreciation of diversity, and conflict resolution skills can help prevent youth from engaging in violence in the future. Anti-gang programs are also essential to school safety. It requires that a school not only acknowledge a gang prescence but that they continue to investigate who is a member and what they are doing.
In conclusion the most effective programs make an accurate assesment of the existence of violence, they use all of their resources in the community, they incorportate family services into community and school programs, they intervene early in a child's life, they include not only antiviolence strategies but also positive experiences, and they create defined behavior codes which are enforced strictly and uniformly.
Schwartz, Wendy. An Overview of Strategies to Reduce School Violence. ERIC Development Team. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse, 1996. 1-10.
EDC 102 Fnl Prj Part I Eval - Sarah